The Cortex system performs well, but there are times when the Smallville Roleplaying Game just seems to miss the point.

Sure, the point is to put superheroic figures together, but my gripe isn't with the fact that you can wind up throwing a lot of dice.

Character creation is horribly difficult. Weaving a web with lots of players will wind up being difficult if people have too strong an opinion about their characters, and then you have to worry about diluting the player's vision and potentially giving them a character they don't want (or know how) to play. Couple that in with a long, lengthy character creation, and if someone decides that they want to change their concept, a lot of that work will be down the drain.

Don't get me wrong, it's written well, but it's maybe overly ambitious, and my pretty much only gripe is with character creation, but it's just a lotta headache to even get started.